PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta meets PM Modi, affirms focus on Indian market

New Delhi: PepsiCo Global CEO and Chairman Ramon Laguarta, on a three-day visit to India, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday to discuss the company’s ongoing presence and investments in the Indian market.

Accompanied by members of PepsiCo’s global executive committee, this marked Laguarta’s first meeting with the Prime Minister despite heading the company’s board for nearly seven years.

"Yesterday, our Chairman and CEO Ramon Laguarta was honored to meet the Prime Minister in New Delhi to discuss strengthening PepsiCo’s long-term commitment to India and exploring opportunities for collaboration in areas such as manufacturing, sustainability, innovation, and community development," PepsiCo said in a LinkedIn post on Wednesday.

PepsiCo India CEO Jagrut Kotecha also attended the meeting. India is considered one of PepsiCo’s anchor markets, with the company investing in new production facilities, including a foods plant in Assam and a concentrate plant in Madhya Pradesh. Additional investment has been made in a greenfield snacks facility near Mathura in Uttar Pradesh.

The discussion comes against the backdrop of revised GST rates, which reduced the duty on food products from 12% to 5%, benefiting brands such as Lays, Kurkure, Cheetos, and Quaker Oats. Conversely, beverage GST rates were raised from 28% to 40% after including the sin tax, which contributed to a decline in PepsiCo’s beverage segment in the June quarter.

PepsiCo India Holdings reported consolidated revenue from operations of Rs 9,096.62 crore in 2024.